Our Instructors and Presenters

CVEDC instructors are among Vermont’s strongest and most current educational leaders. Our staff has the expertise and experience to provide high quality professional learning to you or your staff. Please enjoy their biography and feel free to ask questions.

Our workshop and series presenters are national and statewide leaders who have a track record of high quality professional learning. Regardless of the venue or topic, CVEDC always asks for feedback and incorporates it into our future offerings. We link the Vermont Core Standards to all the work we do, and our CVEDC instructional staff usually includes excellent new books or materials for participants.

Alex Shevrin Venet

Alex is an educator and writer focusing on the intersection between trauma-informed practice and supporting our most challenging students. She teaches undergraduate students at the Community College of Vermont in interdisciplinary studies and humanities, and...

Andrew Jones

Andrew Jones is the Director of Curriculum for Mill River School District in Clarendon, Vermont. He has spent the last several years implementing proficiency-based learning in his science classroom at Mt. Abraham UHS, while also...

Annie O’Shaughnessy

Annie O’Shaughnessy began teaching in 1990 and has since enjoyed a rich and varied career as an educator in public, alternative, and therapeutic settings. In addition to fifteen years as a restorative circle facilitator for...

Betsy Allen

Betsy Allen is the District Math Coach in the Essex Westford School District. After she graduated from the Vermont Math Initiative, she was the Math Coach at Hardwick Elementary School. She has worked for the...

Bob Laird

Bob Laird is an instructor for the VMI courses on Statistics, Action Research and Inquiry into Effective Practice, a mentor of VMI teachers, and developer of materials for the teaching/learning strand of the VMI. In...

Christian Courtemanche

Christian Courtemanche (M.Ed) is the District K4 Math and K8 Science Instructional Coach in Chittenden East Supervisory Union. He has been in elementary and middle school education for over 10 years as both a classroom...

Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld

I am a Professor in the Division of Education at Molloy College, Rockville Centre, New York, where I teach doctoral courses related to diversity, social justice and equity. Before entering the field of teacher education,...

Dr. Lisa Lande

Dr. Lande has dedicated her professional endeavors to advocating for teachers and students around the globe. It is her aspiration that every classroom in every school is one that she would want her own three...

Dr. Ross Greene

Ross W. Greene, Ph.D., is an American clinical child psychologist and the author of the books The Explosive Child, Lost at School, Lost and Found, and Raising Human Beings." Dr. Greene is the developer of the research-based method now called Collaborative...

Dr. Russell J. Quaglia

Russell J. Quaglia is a globally recognized pioneer in the field of education, known for his unwavering dedication to Student Voice and Aspirations. Dr. Quaglia has been described by news media as "America's foremost authority...

Elizabeth (Liz) Mirra

Elizabeth Mirra is the Math and Science Instructional coach for the Springfield School District in Springfield, VT and has been a middle and high school science educator for over 15 years. As a classroom teacher,...

ELIZABETH MOORE

Beth Moore coauthored two of the books within the series Units of Study for Teaching Reading, and the Units of Study for Teaching Opinion, Information, and Narrative Writing with Lucy Calkins and Colleagues. She worked...

Ellen Dorsey

Ellen Dorsey is an instructional coach in Washington Central Supervisory Union where she partners with teachers in grades K through 12 to meet their student-centered goals and provides professional development on instructional strategies to meet...

Emily Rinkema

Emily Rinkema is a Proficiency-Based Learning Coordinator in the Champlain Valley School District in Vermont, spending half of her time supporting standards-based instruction and learning at the high school, and half supporting the middle schools...

Erin Oliver

Erin Oliver is a math specialist for K-8 at Grand Isle School. She began her teaching career in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2007. Throughout her career, Erin has focused on intervention, because her passion is...

Gabe Hamilton

Gabe Hamilton is the Proficiency-Based Learning Coordinator at Mount Abraham Union Middle and High School in Bristol, VT. Prior to leading the implementation of PBL at Mt. Abe, Gabe developed standards-based curriculum in his 9th...

George Couros

George Couros is a leading educator in the area of innovative leadership, teaching, and learning. He has worked with all levels of school--from K-12 as a teacher and technology facilitator, school and district administrator, and...

Hilary Kissel

Hilary Kissel is a reading specialist, educator, and enthusiastic connoisseur of children’s literature who enjoys helping teachers to see the essential role that well-written children’s books play in reading and writing development. Hilary has worked...

Jay Nichols

Jay is a previous member of the Champlain Valley Educator Development Center Board and Executive Committee. Jay was on the Board and a member of the hiring committee that appointed Lauren Wooden to be the...

Jim Knight

Jim Knight is a research associate at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning and the president of the Instructional Coaching Group. He has spent more than a decade studying instructional coaching and...

John R. Tapper, Ph.D.

John Tapper holds a PhD in Mathematics Education. His research includes teaching methods that support struggling math learners and the effects of poverty and race on mathematics learning. Before coming to New York, John was...

Juliet King

Juliet King has been a literacy specialist in Vermont for the past 20 years. She currently works at Bellows Free Academy Fairfax Elementary School as the instructional coach. In her position, Juliet supports teachers in...

Kathy Swan

Kathy Swan is a professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Kentucky. She is the co-editor of the book, Teaching the C3 Framework: A Guide to Inquiry Based Instruction in the Social Studies....

Leah Mermelstein

Leah Mermelstein is an internationally recognized literacy consultant who specializes in K-5 Reading and Writing Workshop. She is the President and CEO of Read-Write-Connect, INC. She is also the author of Reading/​Writing Connections in the K-2...

Linda Keating

Linda P. Keating has been active in Vermont education for four decades. She completed both her undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Vermont and holds Bachelor’s Degrees in English and Psychology and a...

LUCIE DELABRUERE

Lucie deLaBruere currently works as a Digital Age Learning Consultants and teaches educational technology related courses at the University of Vermont, St. Michael’s College, and Gradschool of Marlboro College. She is the director of Google...

Megan Grube

Megan Grube is the Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology for the Grand Isle Supervisory Union. Prior to coming to GISU, she worked as a School Effectiveness Coordinator for the Agency of Education and was...

Michael Berry

My name is Michael Berry and I’m currently the Director of Curriculum, Communication and Innovation in MMMUSD-CESU schools of Vermont. Some of my stats: – Grew up in Gouverneur, New York where both my parents...

Michael Martin, Ed.D.

Michael Martin, Ed.D. is the Director of Learning for South Burlington School District and a Senior Associate with the Rowland Foundation. He was a participant in the National Summit on K-12 Competency-Based Education and teaches...

Pam Foust

Pam has over 35 years in Elementary Education in Vermont from teaching in multiage grades 1-4 classrooms, being a literacy leader and coach, coordinating the CESU Mentoring program supporting new teachers, to being a mentor...

Sarah Miller

Sarah Miller has experience as an ELA and Social Studies teacher in grades 7 and 8. Currently, she is a middle school literacy coach and facilitates professional development with a focus on the Reading and...

Stan Williams

Stan Williams has taught and worked in the Champlain Valley School District for over twenty years. Currently, he is a Proficiency-Based Learning Coordinator for the district and spends his time supporting standards-based learning and instruction...

Stuart Weiss

Stuart Weiss recently retired as the Director of Learning at the South Burlington School District. Prior to that he was a building administrator and teacher. Stuart recently stepped down as the president of CVEDC. He...

Thomas R. Guskey

Dr. Guskey is Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Kentucky. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he began his career as a middle school teacher, served as an administrator in Chicago Public...

Courageous Conversation Training starts Fall 2019

Math for Struggling Learners

Math for Struggling Learners This year, the course will be co-taught by Megan Grube and Erin Oliver. It runs June 24-27 at CVEDC and includes mathematical explorations, techniques for investigating student thinking, ways to build learner independence, and approaches for making instructional decisions to implement interventions.The emphasis is to first gain a deep understanding of how a struggling student understands key concepts, and then to build an intervention to address her thinking.

Using a Literacy Workshop Model – One Day Workshop

The workshop model of instruction provides a comprehensive structure that best supports learning according to the findings of cognitive science. The workshop model is an inclusionary approach, using a framework in which teachers can share focus lessons as well as provide guided, targeted instruction for small groups of students while other students build skills through purposeful, independent practice.